Something disguised to seem affiliated with a group OTHER THAN the one it really is affiliated with. For example, a "false flag operation" is a terrorist act committed by one group for the express purpose of discrediting another group, which is framed for it.

False flag operations in warfare are usually conducted at sea. They are generally speaking illegal, although there are loopholes. The object is to disguise one's own vessel as friendly to the enemy until it is possible to engage said enemy.

In 1980, right wing neo-fascists in Italy carried out a terrorist bombing of a waiting room in a Bologna train station. 85 people were killed. At the time, it was the deadliest terrorist attack in Europe since the end of the War.

At the time, it was blamed on Communists; and indeed, soon after, the PCI was badly beaten in parliamentary elections. In reality, it was a false flag operation carried out by fascists. Members of the notorious P2 Masonic Lodge protected the identities of the perpetrators and later interfered with the investigation.

- An act, operation, or event, often conducted by military or paramilitary units, that is designed and carried out to appear as though it was done by a party other than the one who actually planned and executed it.

1. Declassified U.S. Government documents show that in the 1960s, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan code-named Operation Northwoods to blow up American airplanes, and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. The operation was not carried out only because the Kennedy administration refused to implement these Pentagon plans.

2. Many think that the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was a false-flag operation conceived by the United States government and carried out by the Ukrainian military in order to demonize Russia.

African American street gang-related slang which refers to the act of representing onesself as a member of an urban family (E.g., Vice Lord, Blackstone, Disciple, etc.) when one doesn't actually belong to that family.